Tucson will be a test site for the 'expedited-removal' policy starting this month or in October.

The Arizona Republic

A Homeland Security Department policy that will speed deportation of illegal immigrants from across the globe could have a chilling effect on asylum claims in Arizona, immigration lawyers warn.
Federal officials said the "expedited-removal" policy, which will be tested in Tucson and Laredo, Texas, in late September or early October, is necessary to tighten a loophole that has allowed thousands of immigrants to disappear into the United States.

Under current policy, each illegal immigrant who is from a country other than Mexico is required to appear before a judge for a removal hearing.

With detention centers packed, the government was forced to release about 28,000 people in the past 16 months with a piece of paper noting a court date.

About 90 percent failed to show up for court hearings, according to Homeland Security Department statistics.

The changed policy, used at the nation's airports since 1997, removes the requirement that the government provide a hearing before deportation.

Instead, U.S. Border Patrol agents will ask immigrants if they fear returning to their home country. This is designed to separate those who are not seeking asylum.

The results, officials said, will be a reduction in the court backlog, an increase in bed space and fewer immigrants released on the streets.

But immigration lawyers warn the decision removes key safeguards from the nation's immigration system.

Suzannah Maclay, a lawyer with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, said the policy infringes on due-process rights and reduces oversight of the immigration system. The decision will, in effect, have "low-ranking, inadequately trained, overworked officials in the desert making life-and-death decisions," she said.

Federal officials insist the system will prevent deportations of people with legitimate asylum claims. When the new policy takes effect, Border Patrol agents will refer anyone who expresses a fear of persecution or torture or fear of returning home to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officer.

Immigrants found by asylum officers to have a "credible fear" will be granted a hearing before a judge, according to the policy.

Those who are not found to have a credible fear by an asylum officer can appeal to an immigration judge, said Mario Villarreal, a U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

Under the new policy, most immigrants will be returned home in about a week, officials said.

"We understand these individuals - some of these individuals - from throughout the world may have a credible fear or fear of persecution, and those will be handled on a case-by-case basis," Villarreal said.

The expedited-removal policy applies just to non-Mexican immigrants who have been in the country for fewer than 14 days and are arrested within 100 miles of the Mexican or Canadian borders.

It will have little impact on immigrants from Mexico because they are routinely deported to the border or voluntarily flown to Mexico City or Guadalajara.

Jack Martin, special projects director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization that advocates stricter immigration controls, said the decision was "long overdue."

"These are people (for whom) we have no information regarding their backgrounds or what their intentions are in the United States," Martin said. "It seems extremely irresponsible to be releasing them knowing that a very large percentage of them will simply disappear into society."

Lynn Marcus, director of the University of Arizona's immigration law clinic, said without a hearing before an immigration judge, illegal immigrants lose certain rights, including the right to counsel, to cross-examine a government witness and examine government evidence.

"Theoretically, all an agent has to do is pass (on a case) when a person expresses an adequate fear," Marcus said. "But we're more concerned about the reality of what goes on, where dozens of people are being processed by overworked agents in a short period of time.

"Hearings aren't cheap, but so far as a country, we've decided they're worth it because the stakes can be so high."